>Donald Miller’s ‘A Million Miles in a Thousand Years’

Confession: I wasn’t really aware of Donald Miller, or his work, until early last year (perhaps late ’09). But when I became aware, I plowed in with a vengeance. I wrote of the impact Blue Like Jazz had on me in How ‘Blue Like Jazz’ Saved Me. I whizzed through Through Painted Deserts, the audio version of Searching for God Knows What, and A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Of the latter three, I would say that ‘Milion Miles’ had the profoundest impact on me. Its message was simple, yet profound in its implication: life is not something to be gotten through, but lived. And one cannot truly live without being intentional. (So great was the book’s impact, I grabbed my son on a Sunday morning and drove forty-one miles to a church in Gilbert, AZ to hear Mr. Miller deliver a guest message. After the service, we got to meet him, and I got my copy of ‘Million Miles’ autographed).

Insofar as my life was concerned, so much of it–including my career–was just something I’d fallen into. Mr. Miller’s book was a clarion call to me to live purposefully, with intention. What did I want from my life, and how would I get there? And how would I get there while maintaining the understanding that I’m not the central character in my story (God is)?

One of things I always wanted to do (one of the purposes for which I felt I was put on this planet) was write–so I earnestly began blogging here. In fact, because of Donald Miller, I was able to break free of a nearly eighteen-month slump in which I wrote nary a word.

So grateful was I for this, that when the Save Blue Like Jazz campaign reached 4,000 donors, I gave away my signed copy of ‘Million Miles’ to a poor college student in Kansas. I did it because I felt like I needed to give back, or “pay it forward,” somehow.

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randomlychad

Christ-follower, husband, dad, blogger, reader, writer, movie buff, introvert, desert-dweller, omnivore, gym rat. May, or may not, have a burgeoning collection of Darth Vader t-shirts. Can usually be found drinking protein shakes, playing with daughter, working out with his son, or hanging out with his wife. Makes a living playing with computers.
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